Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani-CSF)(Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)
Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani CSF)(Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)
High-speed crashes at the SuisseGas Gran Premio Città di Lugano resulted in two riders being rushed to hospital on Sunday. Edoardo Zardini has fractured four vertebrae, according to a statement from his Bardiani-CSF team, while race organisers confirmed that Arnold Fiek (Christina Jewelry) was released with bruises.
Fiek was one of the more aggressive riders during the opening kilometres of the race but crashed at high speeds in Castagnola and fell over a set of roadside barriers and landed 10 metres below. Race organisers’ medical staff transported the rider to the Civic Hospital in Lugano, where doctors confirmed he sustained only brusies.
Bardiani-CSF’s Zardini was not so fortunate when he went down in another high-speed crash with 45 kilometres to go. According to a team press release, the rider hit his back against a wall and was then rushed to the Lugano Hospital. Doctors later confirmed that he has fractured four vertebra.
Zardini will spend the night in the hospital and under observation of a Lugano Hospital neurosurgeon “to evaluate and decided, together with the rider and team management, how to face his recovery,” read the team statement.
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